


Time to set things right.

by Raxaon



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Post-Episode: s06e19 I Am My Monster, Time Travel, White Diamond Centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27481339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raxaon/pseuds/Raxaon
Summary: White Diamond is horrified by what she saw Steven turn into, the sins of her past are becoming too great. She needs to make everything better.A White-Diamond centric fic as she time travels to prevent the ones she loves from suffering.
Comments: 80
Kudos: 172





	1. Chapter 1: The seed of an idea.

White was still shaking when she returned to home world, unable to remove the image of a great pink beast from her mind. Steven's trauma, fear and anger had culminated together and transformed him into this monstrous visage. White knew it was her fault.

Glancing at her fellow Diamonds, White could see that Blue had returned to the sorrowful, sad gem that she once was; grieving over the fact that she was unable to help. Yellow's sunshine spirit was clouded by a familiar scowl, the faint smell of ozone indicated that she was barely restraining her frustration.

Feeling a faint tug at her shoulder, White glanced down to see the lanky form of Spinel stretched up and sat on her shoulder. Meeting her gaze, Spinel shifted uncomfortably before asking that White had been dreading.

"Heya White, I ... I gotta ask. What happen’d with you and Steven?"

With an eerily still smile, White turned towards the people she cared about and lied,

"Well ... the poor dear came to me and asked for my help. I connected with him to understand what he was going through, but there was so much pain ... so ... I ... panicked and tried to sever the connection and in the confusion we accidentally slammed our heads on one of the pillars."

Blue gently rested her hand on White's other shoulder and let her power flow, White's mood was instantly lifted

"White, it wasn't your fault."

_"Yes it is."_ White though rebelliously.

"What we need to do now is to focus on what is best for Steven and his recovery."

Without responding White carefully picked Spinel off of her shoulder and placed the pink gem into the hands of Yellow, before turning back to Blue.

"Of course, if you will excuse me, I would like to retire to my chambers. I need to ... meditate."

Yellow turned with a look of concern,

"White, are you sure? I don't want you to ..." Yellow paused for a moment, trying to find the right phrasing

"... get trapped inside your own head."

With half lidded eye's White turned to her fellow Diamonds, gave them a comforting smile and in a gentle voice told them

"I am quite tired, you need not worry my dear. I love you all."

Having reassured her fellow diamonds, White turned to leave. Her heels clicking sharply against the floor, which echoed down the halls. The further she got from Yellow, Blue and Spinel the faster her pace became. Rushing into her room she quickly locked the door behind her before collapsing with her back pressed against the cool metal. Her breathing labored and fast.

She knew. She knew that this was all her fault. That she was the root cause of every problem that gem kind had ever faced. Tears began pouring down her face as she tried to muffle the sounds.

She tried to kill Steven, she had ripped the gem from his body, tormented him into believing that he was his mother and made him feel such agony, which turned him into that ... monster.

Drawing her knee's up to her chest, she began to ruminate further. That it was not just Steven, but all gems. She had been the one who had outlawed fusions and off-colours, purely for existing making them hide in the shadows or face a punishment far worse. She had been the one who had forced Yellow and Blue to follow her command, inciting Yellow's anger by constantly demanding more of her, and enabling Blue's emotional outbursts. They never found the positive side of their powers whilst they were with her, but under Steven ...

Her cluttered thoughts spiraled deeper and deeper until they finally arrived, where they always do, at Pink. White had always believed that all gems were her, that their impurities were stopping them from becoming perfect, stopping them from becoming her. Pink was the antithesis of her, impulsive, rash and purely driven by instinct. White wanted so show her better, to help her be better ... and she hurt her to do so.

The tears had stopped by this point as all the tension in White's form had been sapped out of her. White had hurt Pink, she had locked her in a tower, controlled her best friend, constantly put her down destroying her self-esteem and worth. White knew that Pink was her greatest sin, that everything that Pink did was because of her actions. The war, leaving Spinel, breaking her Pearl, all of that was because of White's upbringing.

Before this, she had believed that she was the perfect being, and whatever a perfect being does is perfect and therefore right. However, Steven had shown her the truth. That she was imperfect. That she was flawed. White had defined herself as perfect and that is all there was, now that was robbed of her she was ... nothing. She had driven Pink away, she had driven Steven away.

At this point White closed her eyes and begun to try and find her resolve again. She did not know how much time had passed, she did not care. Guilt and shame consumed her. Her purpose of existing was to make everything better, but she had simply made everything worse. White closed her eyes, wishing that she could do something that there was some way to undo at least some of the mistakes of the past. If not for Pink then for Steven and that precious planet Earth.

White's brow furrowed. The past, the Earth why did that ring a chime? The energy began to return to White's form as she tried desperately to remember. Then it hit her. Time. The Earth. Yellow and Blue desperately wanted for Pink's first colony to be one of the greatest in the Empire. They put various experimental weapons, innovative laboratories ... including the Sapphire Dust Vault.

White sprung to her feet, the light from her began to fill the room as her excitement increased. The Sapphire Dust Vault was an underwater laboratory dedicated to the research of time-travel. The experiments were deemed as failures, only two of the time-pieced worked and those still required a vast amount of energy to use, even the strongest Amethyst could only time travel back two seconds.

White paced up and down the room, her plants gently swaying from the breeze of her movement. Every Gem has an innate energy store within them, fueling their abilities and powers. Warrior class gems typically had a higher storage capacity than aristocratic gems. But a Diamond. A Diamond energy pool was near limitless. Neither herself, nor Yellow, nor Blue had ever reached even close to their limit. This could work.

White strode towards the door and paused before she opened. If she went through with this, then she might never return to the present or worse completely fail lost in a limbo of time. Those closest to her might never see her again.

Flashing through White's mind were the memories of her, with Yellow and Blue, rehearsing their song to convince Steven to stay on home world. Trying to encourage Blue to project more when she sang. A smile crossed her face. She saw Spinel wrapping her into a hug with Yellow and Blue. She recalled the cool water in the fountain, returning all the corrupted gems to normal.

White's smile weakened for a moment, she saw in her mind Blue and Yellow eagerly chatting with each other before suddenly going quiet as she approached. Spinel's lovely smile dropping at some comment that White had made. Steven clutching his head in pain as she recoiled back.

Shaking herself out of memories, White's resolve hardened. She was a creature that brought suffering, it is too late for her here, she needed to take care of the issue before. To forget this timeline and move onto the next.

As her hand shook over the button to open the door, she knew that at the very least her loved ones deserved to know. White lowered her hand, she needed to undo her mistakes but Yellow, Blue, Steven and Spinel deserve to at least know. Quickly ensuring that her appearance was immaculate, White sat down to record her farewells to the four gems she cared about most.


	2. Chapter 2: Watering the seed.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> White reaches Earth in search of the hourglass of time.

White was breathless as she stopped recording, her hands shook as she wiped the tears from her eyes, trying to regain some composure and poise for the imaginary audience to her emotional meltdown. Those recordings had taken a lot out of her, but she was glad that she made them. She could make her break to the past without any loose ends in this timeline.

Turning towards her vanity, she began to touch up her appearance whilst mulling over the logistics of her problem. White needed to get to Earth without anyone knowing. Her headship was out of the question, due to its sheer size and conspicuous nature.

‘Then again, I am also not very conspicuous either,’ she thought to herself.

Pausing for a moment, White realized that she could take a page out of Pink’s book … and shapeshift.

Closing her eyes and letting her energy flow as she began to glow, her brilliant gem flipping itself up-side down and moving downwards as her form began to shrink. Compressing her vast energy further and further until, in a shower of sparkles, she opened her eyes at her new form.

She smiled as she gazed over her monochromatic body, her upturned gem was safely hidden beneath a large floor length ballgown, her normally spiked hair was perfectly straight, and her pupils had transformed into stars. She was magnificent, she could see why Pink had played around with changing her appearance.

With her thoughts turning Pink, she shook herself out of her daze and turned away from the vanity and towards the door.

Unused to being so small, progress towards the throne room warp-pad was slow, as White was taking extra care not to fall over as she tried to mimic the stride of the many Sapphires she had seen over the millennia. The crowds of gems surrounding her did not so much as look her way as they went about their day. It was a novel experience.

Eventually she made it to the warp-pad and let the sense of weightlessness wash over her as she began her journey towards the earth, a single destination in mind. White felt a restlessness in her gem that she tried to quell.

It was never change that White had been afraid of. If White changed something, then there was always the possibility that it would bring about something worse or that her efforts would result in nothing meaningful. But it was not change itself that brought about this fear, but rather the unknown. The feeling when you stand on the edge of a cliff with shear nothingness beneath and ask yourself to take that step. The unknown was the true enemy, better to stay the course and avoid the worse.

The restlessness began to spread to the rest of White’s new form, as she began to glow slightly pink. Catching herself in this spiral of thoughts, she willed her emotions away and watched the colour leech from her body. This was something that she had to do, no matter what.

Her thoughts were interrupted as suddenly felt heavy, the light around her had vanished and White fell backwards onto the warp pad.

“Oh shucks, are you okay?” A voice called out, which was quickly followed by a large grey hand.

White looked up to see a Bismuth looming over her, hand outstretched. White grasped the hand, pulling herself up. Dusting off her dress she noticed a quizzical expression come across the Bismuth’s face. Oh that’s right, White had almost forgot.

“Thank you for your assistance in helping me up.” White stated, before glancing down at the gem and pausing for a moment.

That cut was identical to the Bismuth that had challenged her a few years ago, but without her armour on. This was one of Steven’s “friends”, she would have to be cautious.

“Ah, it’s no problem, always here to lend a hand, that’s why I’m here. You looking for the warp to lil’ homeworld?”

White blinked and glanced around where she had warped to. She was at the newly repaired Galaxy Warp, there were a handful of gems bustling back and forth but what caught White’s attention was the garish wooden structure with the words “visitor’s center” and “welcome to earth” pasted across it.

“No, I require the warp to the Sea Shrine. I am here to do some … sightseeing.”

“Yeah, the Earth is great for a vacation, but I am sorry from what Garnet told me the Sea Shrine is flooded, you can come back in a century? Hey if you like the sea then you can go to the Sea Spire … wait I think that one might also be …”

White tuned out the Bismuth’s prattle, this might make things a little more difficult, but White had time.

“Regardless of the amount of water I need to visit the Sea Shrine.”

The Bismuth’s brow furrowed as she took a closer look at the gem before her.

“Hey, I didn’t catch your name.”

White froze for a moment, “Cubic Zirconia Facet 0D1D Cut 4MN”

The Bismuth smirked, “Weird I thought you were a White Sapphire given your gravity connectors.”

Panic welled up within White as her voice came out as an indigent squawk.

“Well you are not a Peridot are you, how would you know about gems and their cuts? Who are you to question me? Now direct me to the warp pad immediately!”

“Whow, calm down, I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m sorry. The warp pad is over there.” The Bismuth jerked her thumb over her should towards one of the warp pads in the back.

Wanting to get as far away from the Bismuth, White turned and moves swiftly towards the warp pad, not paying attention to whatever the Bismuth was now saying. White could feel her form beginning to unravel, the pressure of keeping her light bound to a small form was intense.

Activating the warp, White let the weightlessness and a sense of calm wash over her. She had made it, it was a close one with that Bismuth, but by the time they figure it out, she would have already made it back to the past.

As the light dissipated, White found herself submerged in darkness, with a sense of pressure all around her. Releasing her disguise, the light began to fill the underwater shrine, illuminating at the back a series of intricate hourglasses.

Her Diamond pupils searched around looking for the small spherical device. Moving closer she heard a faint shudder of something cracking beneath her heel. Glancing down, she cursed the stars, shards of a small device laid bare on the ground. But White was unconcerned, she had prepared for that eventuality.

White turned towards the largest hourglass, a its towering form coming up to her knee’s as she strode towards the device. The scientists at the Sea Shrine created two timepieces that were functional.

The first was a small one that allowed the users form to be transported forwards and backwards in time. However, the immense power drain was too great for any ordinary gem taking all the energy and light from them with the upper limit being a postulated to be a month at most.

The second had no such limit but was designed to send the users mind back in time to an older form. However, experiments revealed that there was no way for the mind that was sent to have any control over the older body. The users sent would become trapped in the mind of their past self, with no way to change anything.

One would need to have the power to override the mind of their past-self, to make use of this device.

White’s form began to dim as she knelt, bowed her head, and lowered her gem to the top of the Hourglass. As soon as her gem came into contact, she felt the device begin shift and shudder. A single grain of sand moved from the bottom bulb into the top.

White closed her eyes and focused on the past, on her goal. Another grain moved.

She would save Steven from his awful fate. Another grain moved.

A small ache began to originate from her gem, White had never used this much energy before. Another grain moved.

The ache blossomed into pain, as White cringed at the feeling. She needed to find the one moment where she could change things, where she could make a difference. Another grain moved.

Cringing and curling up, White routed through her memories trying to find that single moment. Another grain moved.

A grunt came from her mouth as she, tried to think. If it was their first meeting it might be too late, he might have a coloured view of her already. She needed to think earlier, but when? Another grain moved.

The grunt turned into wail as the pain began to overwhelm her. At the rate she was going she could not reach any further than a few years. She needed to find the perfect moment. Was there a point where she could save Steven from a terrible fate? Another grain moved

The wail turned into a scream, as it was becoming too much. Then it became clear, the single moment, she knew when she must return to. Gritting her teeth in determination, White pushed out the pain and focused on a single time, the one that she must return to.

The final grain moved.


	3. Chapter 3: The worst day of Steven's life becomes the weirdest day.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven stood and turned towards White, pleas on the tip of his tongue, but a single question stopped him dead in his tracks.
> 
> “Who are you?”
> 
> [The worst day of Steven's life takes the weirdest turn.]

This was the worst day of Steven’s life; he was sitting on the cold floor of a gem court about to be executed. As the Ruby descended into the ground the smug Zircon turned back to the Diamonds and proclaimed

“And there you have it. Rose Quartz did it and that's Rose Quartz. I rest my case.”

He tuned out his defense lawyer complimenting the prosecution, as he readied himself for what was to come. If he confessed, then he could ask them to spare then Earth. Connie, Dad, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, everyone would be safe. Glancing at Lars, Steven could see how scared he looked.

Steven took a breath and began to stand, ready to do the right thing, when there was a small flash of light behind him.

He could see the other gems in the court glance up at the newcomer at which point a horrified silence descended across the courtroom. Blue and Yellow Diamond looked … nervous? The Zircon’s were shocked, and the Pearls were …

He had seen that expression across Lars’ face the night after Sadie made him watch a 8 hour gore-a-thon, badly hidden utter terror.

Turning around, he came face to face with a Pearl, but this one was different. She held her arms in a strange way, her smile was unnatural, and her one good eye was focused entirely on him. She opened her mouth and out came a voice very different to any other Pearl he had heard.

“To those in attendance of the trial of Rose Quartz, you are about to be honoured by the presence of the brilliant White Diamond.”

As the Pearl spoke, her lips didn’t quite match what was being said, like some of those bad dubs he had watched at home. Before he could really comprehend what was said the entire room was bathed in light as the biggest gem Steven had ever seen warped in.

Her entire body glowed so brightly that he couldn’t even see her gem, her arms mimicking her Pearls pose and her eyes were focused entire on him. As she peered at him, her smile grew slightly.

“I do hope that I am not interrupting.”

With those words spoken the spell had been broken and Yellow and Blue scrambled out of their seats as all the other gems quickly moved into a salute.

“White! Yellow and I were just … ummm.” Blue turned to Yellow pleadingly.

“Judging the leader of the rebellion, Rose Quartz. A full trial. Exactly how it should be done.”

White hummed for a moment before snapping her fingers, a large throne rose from the white section of the ground.

“Then you won’t mind if I join you then?”

White had phrased it like a question but Yellow and Blue knew otherwise.

“Of course, White.”

“Yes absolutely. If all of us are here, then a full judgement may commence.”

White sat in her throne; feet crossed at to the side. She maintained a perfect posture as she glanced at the Zircon who had taken centre stage.

“You are the defense?”

The Zircon spluttered. “Uhh … yes, your brilliance. I was about to start the opening statement.”

“Then where is the accused?”

Steven shifted uncomfortably as he felt six pairs of eyes drill into him. Slowly raising his hand, he answered

“That would be me.”

A second passed before, laughter filled the room. It sounded hollow. Steven felt his hand fall, as he stood.

“This creature looks more like a human than a Rose Quartz gem. Are you sure that this is truly a Rose Quartz?”

Yellow crossed her arms, straightened her back, and met White’s eyes.

“Yes, we have had an eyewitness who saw her use abilities that only a Rose Quartz could perform.”

“And who is this witness?”

Yellow’s eyeline dropped to the floor.

“It was a Ruby guard.”

White did not say anything, merely raising an eyebrow in response. Seeing Yellow flounder, Blue jumped in.

“Maybe, we can have a spectroscopy performed?”

“What an excellent decision Blue, wouldn’t you agree Yellow?”

Yellow smiled nervously, “I could not agree more.”

Steven cradled his legs. White was different, she wasn’t like Blue or Yellow. She seemed … off. But hey, at least the other two weren’t calling for his death. He stood up as a small cylindrical device hovered in front of him. White’s voice startled him.

“Please reveal your gem to the scanner.”

Steven felt the cold nip at his skin as he pulled up his shirt, the cylinder honed in immediately towards his gem and began to scan. Steven shifted awkwardly, trying to look anywhere but the scanner, craning his neck he turned to look at Yellow and Blue.

Yellow seemed to be flicking through something on her screen, her hand propping up her head and her foot impatiently tapping against the floor.

Blue was staring at White with narrowed eyes, her hands resting loosely on the arms of her throne.

Soon the scan was complete, the small device flew towards White before unravelling, like a scroll, into a floating screen. White flicked her index finger as she scrolled through the results, soon she stopped, her nail hovering over a particular line of gem glyphs, it was hard to read from this angle. With a snap of her fingers White drew everyone’s attention.

“We no longer require the presence of the Zircon’s, return to your previous duties, that will be all.”

The pair of Zircon’s looked confused for a moment before Blue’s spoke on their behalf.

“White, all trials must have a formal prosecution and defense, you can’t just …”

“Shhhhh”

At Blue’s stunned expression and sudden silence, White lowered her finger from her lips.

“This is no longer a trial, so there is no need for a defense or a prosecution.”

Both Yellow and Blue looked at each other, each wishing the other would speak, eventually both sighed.

“You are both dismissed, that will be all.”

The pair of Zircon’s moved to the centre of the room, made their salutes to each of the diamonds, ending with White, before warping away.

Steven was lost more than ever; he was supposed to be put on trial but now he’s not? A strike of fear lanced through his heart, what if White was going to kill him without a trial, he needed to make sure that the Earth was safe.

Steven stood and turned towards White, pleas on the tip of his tongue, but a single question stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Who are you?”

What? Steven blinked, his frown fading away as he locked into the strange stare of the Diamond in front of him.

“I … I’m Ro…”, as soon as the name was about to leave his mouth the stare intensified, almost as if she were angry at him, almost as if she knew he was lying.

Lowering his head, slumping his shoulders Steven confessed

“I am Steven Quartz DeMayo Universe.”

Behind him he heard a growl from Yellow, all the hairs on his body stood upright as static filled the air.

“Pearl, once this farce is over, please bring that Aquamarine to me immediately.” Despite Yellow’s best efforts the sheer venom I her voice was apparent. Steven quickly turned,

“No no no, she was kinda right,” Steven lifted his shirt, revealing his gem, “my mom was Rose Quartz, I have her gem but none of her memories.”

A wave of sadness, anger and sorrow sank into Steven’s heart,

“So, you cannot answer anything about how you … you …” Blue could not finish the sentence before the armrest of her throne cracked under her grip.

“I’m sorry all I know is that my mom … I know what my mom did, the mistake she made.”

Yellow’s impatience was wearing thin, “So! Are you or are you not, Rose Quartz? And what is this mom?”

A pressure began to build at Steven’s temples, but before he could respond he was cut off by White,

“A mom is the biological progenitor of an organic creature something that is not applicable to a gem. Yet…?”

The silence after her statement was staggering, the other diamonds eyes were wide with disbelief as White tapped away at the scroll display in front of her, creating two duplicates.

“Indeed, this is a very interesting day for gemkind, but we have more pressing matters.” With a dismissive wave of her hand White sent the duplicates towards Blue and Yellow.

Without even looking at the screen, Yellow rounded on White, ire and hate filling her voice “More pressing matters! We have found a half-gem … abomination, one who possess the gem of Rose Quartz! The same Rose Quartz that shattered …”

“PINK!”

Before Yellow could finish her diatribe against Steven, she was overwhelmed by a flood of tears.

Blue had dived out of her seat and grabbed Steven tenderly, pressing him against her face in a pseudo-hug.

It was at this point Steven’s brain went into hibernate mode. Firstly, he turned himself into homeworld to pay for his mom’s crimes, then he was put on trial in front of the diamonds, then a bigger scarier diamond shows up to stop the trial and now he is being hugged by a gem that was just trying to kill him!

“WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?!” “WHAT IN THE STARS IS GOING ON?!”

The exasperated cries of Steven and Yellow rang out through the chamber and briefly put Blue’s tears of joy to a halt, as she glanced between the pair of them with an owlish look. Slowly, a loving smile filled her face as she cradled Steven in one hand and wiped away her tears with the other. Blue walked towards yellow and lifted Steven until he was eye-level with the pair of them.

“Look at information screen. Go on.”

Yellow scowled and snatched the screen from her armrest and began to scan through it, her scowl changing from anger to confusion before finally disappearing altogether.

“It can’t be.” Yellow’s voice barely a whisper. Steven shocked

Steven’s head flicked back and forth between the two diamonds.

“What? What is it?”

“Blue, if you would mind putting him down.” White’s voice cutting through the tension. Glancing at her, White was still sitting the same position as she had at the start of the trial, her smile filled with vindication.

Without another word, Blue lowered her hands to ground, allowing Steven to jump off, before returning to her throne.

White scanned the room, making sure that everyone had returned to their original positions. Steven felt the butterflies in his stomach return as the platform beneath him begin to rise.

White’s mouth opened for a moment, pausing “Steven, your gem is not a Rose Quartz.”

The world began to tilt as the butterflies in his stomach turned into lead.

“That gem is a pink diamond. You are a Diamond.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone notice White's two little slip-ups? Which characters noticed?  
> I have tried to keep White's characterisation fairly consistent to the original show as I can. I loved the interviews with Rebecca Sugar about what White represents, the super-ego, and her (old) belief that she is the centre of everything and all gems are but an extension of her.


	4. Chapter 4: The end to Steven's weirdest day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven react to the news that he is a diamond, White says something that she should have said a long time ago and everyone gets into the ship.
> 
> (Recently re-editted for spelling)

Steven felt the world tilt beneath him as White’s words echoed in his head. He could see the other diamonds move their mouths but their voices were muted by a deafening ringing. They were talking at him but he couldn’t talk back as his mouth was sand and cotton.

He was a diamond.

No matter how hard he looked at the screen it was not telling him anything different.

His mom was a diamond.

He tried to wipe the tears from his eyes but his hands would not stop shaking. Did Pearl know? Did Garnet and Amethyst? Did Dad? Did everyone he loved lied to his face?

Steven was roused from his stupor by a giant hand brushing his hair. Glancing up, Steven looked eyes with White’s colossal pupils. Slowly, like cradling a baby bird, White scooped Steven into her hands and raised him to the eye level of the other diamonds.

Steven could see Blue holding back tears as hard as she could contrasting her brilliant smile. Yellow seemed lost, her hand twitching as if to reach towards him but never working up the courage to do so.

“This must be quite overwhelming for you.” White said whilst slowly blinking.

Steven forced a chuckle, “Heh, you have no idea.” Steven began to try to control his breathing, trying to make it slower and steadier. Closing his eyes, he tried to disperse the butterflies in his mind, trying regain his focus. This was not how he was going to fall apart.

Opening his eye’s once more, Steven stood and turned to face White.

“What are you gonna do with me?”

Blue immediately jumped into the conversation, “Oh, Pink you could plan a ball to celebrate your return.”

“No, absolutely not.” Yellow’s frown returned, her arms crossed, “thanks to your little ... galactic embarrassment, we need to ensure that ...”

“Yellow!” Blue turned, shocked, “how could you say such things? We finally have Pink back. This should be a momentous day in the empires history, we should announce it across the Galaxy.”

Yellow rolled her eyes. “I am not saying that we shouldn’t do it ever, I am saying that we need to ensure that the bureaucracy is handled before we make any rash decisions.” Building momentum in her argument Yellow continued,

“Next you’ll be saying that we should give Pink back her court immediately.”

Blue’s expression turned defiant. “As a matter of fact, yes! I think that we should return Pink’s gems to her at once. They were hers and it would be wrong of us to keep them from her.”

Yellow pinched her brow between her fingers. “And what about their duties? If we pull them away from their stations then gem production across the empire will drop instantly and ...”

White coughed lightly, immediately silencing the other two diamonds. White glanced between the two of them before turning her gaze on Steven.

“What do you want to do?”

Steven looked down and gently hugged himself.

“I wanna go home.”

“You wish to return to Earth?”

Steven nodded, before quickly remembering, “and Lars too. The human that was with me.”

“Of course, Starlight.”

Steven let out a sigh of relief, he was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay. He turned to Blue and Yellow’s gob smacked expressions. Yellow was the first one to snap out of it.

“White ... are you sure that it is ... wise to return Pink to Earth? It was the place where this ... debacle began.”

“Oh White, please don’t send Pink back to that awful place. We just got her back.”

White gently closed her eyes, drawing in a breath she did not need. Without paying much attention White began to gently stroke Steven’s hair.

“What was the last conversation you had with Pink?”

A pained expression flashed across Yellow’s face, before turning defiant. Yellow opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

“I didn't, I...” Blue said gently and faintly. Sorrow and confusion plastered across her face as she tried to comprehend what White was implying. White continued,

“I could never understand Pink, she lacked control, driven by instinct and whim. I tried to ...” White frowned “... I tried to control her. I thought that I was helping, helping her be the best version of herself.”

White glanced between her fellow diamonds, both of them radiating a nervous energy of anticipation. They had both wanted to talk about this for so long.

“That was wrong. I was wrong.” Tears brimmed at the bottom of White’s eyes. “I did not listen to her.”

Blinking away the tears, White’s face became determined.

“But I will not repeat the mistakes of my past self. I want ... I want us all to be better, I want to make everything better. Starting with Steven.”

There was a tension in the air. Blue took a step towards White.

Carefully, Blue wrapped her arms around White.

“You’re right. I don’t want to do it again. I can’t do it again. I want things to change too.”

Steven glanced at Yellow, she was subtly hugging herself with her crossed arms, gazing longingly and enviously at the embrace. With a small smile, White nodded towards Yellow.

Awkwardly, Yellow joined the embrace. A smile flittered across Yellows face before she closed her eyes and leaned into the hug. The three diamonds held the embrace for as long as they could.

Eventually White shifted and the other two broke off. Standing close, all three diamonds were smiling as they looked at each other.

White raised her hand toward the ceiling, following her gesture Steven saw the dome of the courtroom split open, blooming outwards, revealing a pastel orange sky, towering buildings and in the distance a large white ship in the shape of a torso and head.

Blue and Yellow raised their arms in a similar manner. A faint rumble in the distance resonated in Steven’s chest as a pair of familiar arm ships floated towards the exposed courtroom.

Blue turned towards Steven with a small smile.

“Oh I wish we had your personal ship. I would love to have seen the full majesty of all our ships combined. Maybe we could find a similar ship for you to fl...”

“Absolutely not.” “I think not.”

Yellow and White shared a look after their synchronous protests. Yellow quickly turned her attention towards her Pearl.

“Pearl, put the human in the cargo hold and reschedule my extraction. That will be all. White, which ship shall we travel in?”

Without saying a word White summoned a large white disk beneath the feet of herself and the others, she then began to direct it towards her ship.

“Blue, Yellow could you please attach your ships to mine, we shall direct them from the throne room. I am sure that Steven can regale us with stories as we fly.”

As the other diamonds turned to Steven, he gave an awkward smile.

“Uh...Yeah, sure.”

At the start of today he was sure that he was going to be executed, then he found out that is mom was Pink Diamond and now he is getting to go home. Steven felt all the energy in his body drain out his feet as the sheer mental and physical exhaustion of the day crashed down.

But he had saved Lars, the diamonds had stopped trying to kill him and he was finally getting to go home. Steven could hear the sounds of the diamonds ... the _other_ diamonds talking, but he could feel sleep begin to take him. Just before he completely fell asleep, he felt his body being gently placed onto something comfortable and a large finger gently stroking his hair.


	5. Chapter 5: Relief and Revalations.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Crystal Gems deal with the fact that Steven is missing, before they are rudely interupted by some uninvited guests.

Pearl was on the verge of cracking.

She and Peridot had failed to fix the wiring on the old light-kite dropships to get working. All they had accomplished was ruin perfectly good cablet aht could have been used for other devices.

The diamonds could be doing anything to Steven. They could grind his gem to dust and use it for a mural. They could lock him away in a dark tower for him to starve to death. They could find out the truth.

Without her willing it, Pearl’s shaking hand clasped around her mouth as she tried to stop any traitorous sounds from emerging. She glanced over to Greg talking in hushed tones with Connie, even from this distance she could see the their red-rimmed eyes look at the ground is despair.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Pearl walked towards Garnet, still sitting cross legged on the floor. She had been since Steven...

“Say Garnet, have you found anything yet.” A forced, nervous smile plastered across her face.

As the seconds ticked by Garnets continued silence was damning. Pearls smile fell, she began wringing her hands back and forth, tremors ran up and down her body as the seconds ticked by.

Her nervous ticks were silenced when Garnet smashed the floor with her fist.

“I can’t find it, I can’t find the path, I ... I don’t know.”

The nervous tension returned with a vengeance, “come on Garnet, what do you mean you don’t know?” Pearl said hurriedly.

“Somethings wrong with my future vision.”

Fear gripped Pearls form.

“What do you mean somethings wrong!? I can get some of Rose’s tears from the fountain if you...”

“No, it works. But it is as if the river we have been following has met an ocean... and we are being pulled by tides and currents that I can’t see.”

Dread filled Pearls chest as she collapsed onto the couch. Using a human turn of phrase, Garnet was Pearl’s rock. Her stalwart nature was a universal constant that Pearl could rely upon, her foresight and ability to lead was what kept the Crystal Gems together after Rose’s passing. To hear those words, to see Garnet so distraught, it was as if Pearl was alone and sinking into the depths of this ocean.

Pearl’s hands wrapped around her mouth, the other gripped her hair. She needed to think of something. Maybe she could recreate that “rocket” from Greg’s van. But the previous one did not even make it to the atmosphere. Maybe they could empower lion to open a wormhole right to Steven?

The door slammed open, Amethyst stomped across the room, a stormy expression on her face.

“Oh, Amethyst. Did you find any old ship parts?” Pearl said, hopefully.

“No.” Amethyst replied, curtly, not even looking Pearl in the eye.

“Well, maybe we can look around the kindergartens? See if we can …” CRACK! The beam that Amethyst punched nearly split in two. Pearl stopped talking. Amethyst turned to face Pearl, anger in her eyes and tears on her cheeks.

“He’s gone, Steven is gone. We were supposed to be there for him and now he’s GONE AND IT’S ALL OUR FAULT!” Amethyst breathed heavily before falling backwards, sobbing violently. Pearl tried to stand but the strength had left her legs. Amethyst continued,

“I told Greg… I told Greg that we lost his son. That we had somehow convinced him that all of Rose’s problems were his problems. I told you … ‘we’re bad at this’ and look where we are now.”

Pearl didn’t move, she didn’t cry. There was nothing left for her to give. She was so tired.

For a while none of the Crystal Gems moved. Wallowing together, only moving when every window in the house exploded because of an earth-shattering shockwave.

Picking themselves up from the floor the Crystal Gem’s drew their weapons. Pearl smiled as she drew her spear, the last time a shockwave like that occurred, Jasper had shown up. There might be a gem ship incoming, if there was then they can commandeer it, fly to Homeworld, rescue Steven and live happily ever after.

Rushing out onto the beach the three Crystal Gems scanned the sky for the ship, ready for a fight.

Pearl was the first one to spot the ship. Her eye’s widened as a cold emptiness took hold of her. She recognized the ship, or more accurately, ships. It was all three of them. Pearl looked towards Garnet for a plan and reassurance, the taller gem was unmoving and quivering slightly. Amethyst was still fired up though.

“C’mon guys, let’s take these bozo’s down. Right Garnet … Garnet?”

Garnet was speechless. Losing her nerve Amethyst turned towards Pearl.

“Heya, Pearl. Whose ship is that?”

Pearl couldn’t look Amethyst in the eye. She needed to be strong.

“The two ships attached to the torso are the personal ships of Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond.”

“Oh what those two? Guess they’re coming out of the woodwork. C’mon we can take ‘em.”

“It’s not them we are worried about. The middle ship. That is the personal vessel of the supreme matriarch of Homeworld, White Diamond.”

Even saying the name out loud was unnerving. Memories flashed through Pearls mind of another Pearl, colourless, lifeless, robotic, the perfect slave.

The ships had begun to descend, they would be on the beach in moments. Pearl tightened her grip on the spear. Regardless of what was to happen she was going to fight, for Steven, for the Earth and for herself.

The ships had stopped, less than a hundred feet from the water. A small orb emerged from the forehead of the ship. Trailing its way towards the Crystal Gems.

Pearl tried to clear her mind as best she could. She needed inner peace and concentration for this battle.

The Sphere touched the sand and dropped, revealing Steven … Steven?

“STEVEN!” Pearl cried out, dropping her spear and rushing towards her son. She could hear the footsteps in the sand behind her.

“GUYS! I’M OKAY!” Steven tearfully called out, making a mad sprint towards them.

They met each other halfway, all four of them collapsing into a pile of tears, smiles and laughter together. They stayed like this for moment, enjoying the embrace and each others company.

In a small voice Pearl whispered, “We thought that we would never see you again. Please never leave us like that again.”

Amethyst chimed in, “Yeah dude, if you try that stuff again, I am gonna put you in the headlock of a lifetime.”

“Steven, we love you so much. We are glad that you are back.” Garnet concluded.

Steven looked into Pearls eyes, with matching tears he sniffed and said “Guys, I’m sorry I thought that…”

“AH-HEM.”

Snapping Pearl out of her reverie, she glanced toward the nasally voice that had interrupted them. Standing on the beach, a few feet way from her was Yellow Diamond’s personal Pearl standing ahead of Blue Diamond’s personal Pearl.

The wave of memories that accompanied this sight was one of annoyance and snide comments about Pearl’s posture, choice of form, the lack of any ridiculous props and trinkets.

“May all Gems, traitors or otherwise, behold the daunting, beauty and elegance that is, Yellow Diamond!”

“And prepare yourselves emotionally for the overpowering elegance that is, Blue Diamond.”

There was a beat of silence as two large, coloured spheres descended from the palms of the hand-ships.

“Uh dude, I thought you ganked these ships.”

Touching down just behind the Pearls, the spheres fell, revealing both Diamonds.

“Yeah… not exactly.”

Blue Diamond glanced down and, seeing the scene before her, started to glare at them. Yellow, pre-empting a storm, cut in.

“What are you doing? Take your filthy rebel hands off of her at once.”

Amethyst was the first to respond, “Hey, step off you Yellow coloured clumpy clod.”

Static filled the air as Yellow’s frown grew deeper and thunderous. Steven stepped in to straighten out the situation,

“Hey, guys come on let’s not fight.”

Yellow ignored Steven and began muttering to her fellow diamond, “Blue, you saw me, I tried and be reasonable, but these uncivilised gems clearly have regressed without us.”

But before any more barbs or potential lightning bolts could be thrown, a booming voiced echoed around the beach.

“May all Gem’s present please make way for the Flawless White Diamond.”

In that instant all Gems were immediately alert, the Crystal Gem’s were battle ready, the Pearls bowed their heads and the diamonds straightened their postures.

From the centre of the Ship descended the largest sphere yet, Pearl knew what … or who was coming. Both diamonds stood aside to make room as the sphere touched the sand.

The sphere blossomed and the beach was engulfed in light. Pearl shielded her eyes from the glare, trying to get a visual on the enemy. But the moment Pearl met the unnatural gaze of this entity her entire body was locked in position, mesmerised by the being before her. The ancient creator of all Gemkind.

White Diamond had arrived on Earth and Pearl knew that there was nothing she could do to stop her.

“Hey White, what took you so long?”

Whatever part of Pearls gem responsible for logic had clearly failed because why would Steven address White Diamond like that?

“I was returning your little human friend to its tribe.” White Diamond began looking directly at the Crystal Gems before her. “Well Steven, are you going to introduce us?”

“Oh right. Yellow, Blue, White this is Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl this is Yellow, Blue and White … Diamond, obviously.” He trailed off, nervously chuckling. Nobody was moving.

It was at this stage that Pearl cracked a small smile. This was one of those mixed up movie dreams, she was so tired that she must have fallen asleep. That was the only explanation for this. Amethyst took a step forward such that she was right beside Steven, in a hushed tone she whispered,

“Hey … Steve-o, why are you doing the meet-n-greet for the technicolour tyrants?”

Steven opened his mouth before closing it again. He looked to the ground trying to find the words in the sand. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Steven looked between each of the Gems.

“Guys, I have something to tell you. I was put on trial and they did a scan of my gem and I found out that my gem … isn’t a Rose Quartz.”

Pearl could hear glass shattering faintly in the distance, her hands jumping to her mouth to strangle the words that might come out. No. This wasn’t. No. This can’t. NO.

“Mom was Pink Diamond.”


	6. Interlude 1: Spinel seeks reassurance.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We return back to our original timeline. To the place where White abandoned.

Spinel’s shoes squeaked as she sadly walked down the empty palace halls. Blue had been having difficultly creating her clouds, her inability to help Steven still weighed upon her, Yellow was with her to try to cheer her up.

Spinel clasped her hands together to stop the involuntary tapping.

She loved Blue deeply, but being accidently forced to feel her sadness was … too much. She needed a break, some room to breath. Yellow had assured her that she was more than capable of reassuring Blue.

Spinel’s fingers had escaped their clasp and had slowly begun to grip her pigtails. She could trust Yellow.

Spinel’s squeaks stopped as the silence around her rang in her ears. Yellow had told her to take a break, to leave, to get out, to STOP!

Spinel shook herself. She was not going down that path, Yellow, Blue and White all loved her dearly. They would never abandon her like STOP!

She could feel the phantom vines grip her leg and she needed to break out of this mindset.

Taking a moment to breath she tried to recall White’s meditative techniques. She needed to identify where these feelings were coming from.

A deep breath in. Spinel was worried that the Diamonds would do … what Pink did to her.

A deep breath out. She had no logical evidence for this, but still felt this way.

A deep breath in. These feelings must have come from her earlier stress.

A deep breath out. This was because of what she had done to Steven.

The phantom vines tightened, she frowned. Spinel needed to talk this out with someone.

Opening her eyes and making a beeline towards White’s room, Spinel tried to reassure herself that talking about her problems was NOT going to be a burden.

Expanding her fist, she knocked on the door, the sound deafening compared to the earlier silence.

“Heya, White. It’s me … Spinel. I was wondering if I could talk to you about something.”

There was no response. That was odd.

“White. Ya in there?”

No reply, save her own echo.

“Hmmm.” Spinel pressed the panel and the colossal door parted. Inside was White’s immaculate room in chaos. There were a few upturned plants, a collapsed pillar and all the items on her vanity were strewn about on the floor.

Spinel bristled at the sight of the room, had someone attacked White, where was she? Scanning the room, she spotted something that she didn’t see last time.

A single communicator floating in the middle of the room.

Stretching up to reach Spinel activated it, revealing a single panel with four pre-recorded messages. One addressed to Blue, one addressed to Yellow, one addressed to Steven and one addressed to Spinel.

Unease filled Spinel. Flashes of Steven’s communication to the galaxy filled her mind, the feelings that brought up.

Spinel quickly clamped down on those feelings as her hand hovered over her message.

Taking a deep breath, in and out. Spinel pressed play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sort of mini-chapter. I am currently writing chapter 6 but I need to get some momentum going on it before then. I hope to update soon. Thank you all so much for the kind comments.


	7. Chapter 6: WHAAAAAAT!?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crystal gems have their initial reactions to the news about the whole Pink/Rose situation. Which is followed by Pearl losing it in front of the Diamonds.

“WHAAAAAAT!?”

Amethyst could not believe it. Rose was supposed to be so great, she was supposed to know everything … she was supposed to make everything better. Rose told her that she could be anything she wanted, but was that even true? What did Amethyst do to deserve this? What did Steven do to deserve this?

Amethyst looked up from the sand and took a long hard look at Steven. His shoulders were tense, eyes flitting between all three of them and his hand hovering over his gem. He was afraid of how the Crystal Gems would react.

Amethyst felt a lead weight drop into her stomach, Steven should not be afraid. That was messed up.

Pearl broke from the group and made her way towards Steven, but stopped just outside of hugging distance.

“I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you for so long … but I couldn’t, I just couldn’t.”

“You knew.”

Everyone turned to Garnet, her Gauntlets summoned.

“You kept that from us … me. I was told that I was never supposed to question this. Rose told me that we were the answer, was that …”

Garnet froze in place, Amethyst couldn’t tell beneath that visor but from the small flecks of snow under one of Garnets feet, she was near her breaking point. Trying to get a read, Amethyst moved to Garnets side.

“Hey, are you okay?” Amethyst gently place her hand on Garnets arm.

Startled by the touch, Garnet turned to Amethyst, expression hidden under the visor. She turned away, rapidly looking towards Pearl, then Steven before finally landing on Blue Diamond.

The Diamond hadn’t said a word so far, but she was glaring at Garnet, but with the corners of her mouth twitching upwards every so often, seemingly enjoying Garnets discomfort.

Yellow Diamond on the other hand seemed to not care, being far more interested in a small panel she was holding rather than the drama before her. Although every so often Amethyst would catch her glancing at the Crystal Gems and Blue out of the corner of her eye.

White Diamond was … White was staring at Steven and them, all the while wearing that same creepy smile. Something uncomfortable twisted in Amethyst as she looked at her.

Garnet’s gauntlets vanished, lowering her head she met Steven’s nervous gaze.

“Steven, we love you. This is not your fault and I don’t blame you. This is just a lot to take in, we … I need a moment alone to process this.”

With a fleeting glare glanced back at Blue, Garnet stood tall,

“I am not going to give her the satisfaction of seeing me … Thank you for telling us.”

With a gentle kiss upon Stevens forehead, Garnet turned and walked back towards the temple, all the while keeping the Diamonds in the corner of her line of sight. The door the beach house slammed shut. Steven flinched at the sound before looking at the ground, totally miserable.

Why was he taking all of the blame for this? Why was this his problem to deal with? He can’t help how he was born. Why should the other resent him for how he was born!?

Resolve rediscovered, Amethyst stepped forward and slinked her arm around Steven, before looking at the Diamonds.

“Hey, big bozo’s, I hope you aint gonna cause us any trouble. Cause if you did anything to hurt Steven, then you’re gonna have to answer to me.”

Emphasizing the point by jabbing her thumb against her chest, without looking Amethyst could feel the tension leave Steven’s shoulders, she cracked a small smile at that.

The Diamonds on the other hand looked, as Pearl would put it, aghast and horrified. Blue was trying to hide her gasp beneath her hands, clearly she was shocked that such a “low-gem” talked to her like that. Yellow was glaring at her, veins bulging and popping in her neck, the same ones that Peridot brought out after her message.

White was … smiling wider. Amethyst was a little unnerved by her demeanour, nothing seemed to get under her skin. Meeting her gaze properly, Amethyst felt something shift within her, something in the back of her head was telling her something that she couldn’t understand. A faint buzzing was coming from somewhere, Amethyst couldn’t look away.

Then White blinked,

“Oh! Hello there! Steven your new friends are so funny. I am so glad that your … guardians, are so protective over you.”

Trying to look anywhere else but at White, Amethyst turned towards Pearl, who seemed to be freaking out in the most restrained way possible. Torn between trying to hug Steven, defend him from the Diamonds or cry and apologise. It resulted in Pearl being shock completely still save for an occasion involuntary twitch.

White continued, “I would like to learn more about the gems that raised him, is that not agreeable?”

It was at this that Pearl snapped.

“Agreeable? Agreeable! You tormented Pink for thousands of years, belittled her, crushed her, made her feel like she was nothing.” Anger boiling to the surface, Amethyst had never seen anything like this before.

“Then when you finally gave her a colony, you refused to let her run it how she wanted. She saw the value of life on earth. She tried to explain it to you BUT YOU WOULD NOT LISTEN!”

Spittle was flecking from her mouth, Amethyst gently pulled Steven aside. The smell of ozone and static began to fill the air. Pearl continued her warpath,

“Since you refused to respect her as a Diamond, well … it’s no wonder she became Rose. She valued the Earth for its life and freedom, freedom from the three of you!”

At this stage a wave of energy passed over the beach, Amethyst felt tears pour down her face, turning to Steven, he seemed to be in the same position. Amethyst hugged him tighter. Pearl continued through the tears.

“Rose never wanted to go back to Homeworld, back to that tower, back to you! She wanted freedom so badly that she faked her shattering to finally be FREE OF YOU!”

“ENOUGH!”

A stream of concentrated lightning launched itself from Yellow Diamond, charging towards Pearl.

Until a giant pink shield blocked the bolt. With a tremendous clash the lightning parted around the shield, saving Pearl. Blue Diamond immediately rounded on Steven.

“Pink, drop that shield now. You must know that a Diamond cannot be spoken to in that manner by any gem, let alone a Pearl!”

Amethyst drew her whip and stepped in between the Crystal Gems and the Diamonds.

“Step off, just cause you don’t like hearing the truth doesn’t mean that you have to take it out on Pearl.” Tugging on the whip for emphasis.

Blue looked even angrier at this exclamation, however she stepped aside as Yellow took centre stage and raised her hand once again.

“Get out of the way Pink. Now.” Yellow muttered through gritted teeth.

Out of the corner of her eye Amethyst could see Steven was torn between defending his friends and trying to avoid a fight. He resummoned his shield ready for what was to come.

“That is quite enough of that.”

White’s voice cut through the building tension. At once the other two Diamonds turned to face her, Yellows face full of fury,

“White, I do not know what has come over you but I will not lay down and …”

Yellow was cut off by White’s raised hand, whatever momentum she had built up had been halted. White turned and calmly addressed Pearl,

“You were Pink’s Pearl, correct?”

Amethyst heard Pearl mutter under her breath “I am nobody’s Pearl.” However, under the unwavering gaze eventually she nodded.

“You were close to her?”

Another nod.

White looked upwards towards the sky hands clasped together, she continued

“I have always had difficulty understanding others feelings. I cannot begin to comprehend the emotional struggle that the two of you went through together. I am thankful that Pink had such loyal and close friends. So loyal that you would fight against us to defend her memory.”

Amethyst saw Pearls spear slowly lower, the previous anger reduced to a simmer. An unfamiliar expression crossed Pearls face, confusion? White looked down once again.

“We are not here to fight, we are here to do what we failed to before.”

White turned towards Yellow and Blue, there was something about her expression that Amethyst couldn’t place, but whatever was there the other two Diamonds saw it. Their previous fury faded completely.

“We are here to listen to what Pink was trying to tell us all those millennia ago, since she is … no longer with us, we must listen to those who were closest to her. Even if those words … hurt, we must listen.”

Moving close, White tenderly cupped both Blue and Yellows faces with her hands.

“We must hold our heads high and face the truth with the dignity of a Diamond, no matter where it comes from, be it Pearl or Peridot.”

At the mention of Peridot a small frown of annoyance graced Yellows brow, whilst a small smile of amusement fluttered on Blues. White returned the smile before turning towards the remainder of the Crystal Gems.

“This planet was Pink’s greatest desire when we knew her and became her greatest love when we lost her. I would be honoured if you would tell us about Pink and what she saw in the Earth.”

Amethyst was kinda dumbstruck this did not go at all like she had been expecting. Checking in with Steven she saw a huge grin across his face and his shield nowhere in sight. Pearl was a different matter, although she didn’t have her spear out she was shifting about uncomfortably, trying to look anywhere but at the large Diamond peering at her, which was broken by a single word.

“Please”

Shocked, Pearl faced White.

“I want to become closer with Steven and Pi … and Rose.”

With a loud sigh, Pearl closed her eyes.

“Very well, if you insist. I will tell you the Tale of Rose Quartz.”

A small series of white platformed formed beneath them and lifted them up. Soon Amethyst was eye-level with these huge gems, who had taken to summoning their equally huge hoverchairs onto the beach. Pearl looked towards Steven before summoning out of her gem a water bottle, two cheese bagels and a dozen blankets. Steven began wolfing down his first cheese bagel and drinking as much as he could. Once the small coughing fit had pasted he snuggled with Amethyst in the cocoon of blankets, looking at Pearl expectantly.

“A-hem, our story begins approximately six thousands years ago…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a hard one to write. But I am glad with how it turned out. I wrote a whole speech by White about the importance of confrontation, but then I realsied that it was completely ill-fitting, which sucks. Also had one hell of a time trying to change the writing styles to fit the character whose perspective we are following.  
> Finally, I really loved White's first appearance. Her inhuman nature was so jarring and frightening, she is like the Gem equivalent of an ancient elder entity.


	8. Chapter 7: The tale of Rose Quartz (feat. Reactions from the Diamonds).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whenever White thinks about Pink she turns introspective. When listening to the story of Pink and her journey to becoming Rose Quartz ... it makes White consider some very important things.

As the Pearl told the tale of Rose Quartz, White was mesmerised. In her original timeline, the pain that she had inflicted onto Steven was too great, whenever she would ask about Pink he would divert the conversation to another topic, or give this adorable laugh and say ‘she was great, just the best’. In hindsight, it was clear that her previous conviction that he was Pink made him reluctant to talk about her to White.

But in this timeline, White listened to how ecstatic Pink was as she received her colony. Glancing at her fellow diamonds, she could see gentle smiles dance across their faces, seeing Pinks reaction was one of their happiest memories. One that she did not share, because of her ridiculous pride and her idea of _‘not giving into Pink’s demands’_ , she never got to see the joy in Pink’s face as she saw the Earth for the first time. A strange weight settled into the middle of her body as White tried to remember the last time she saw Pink happy, and despite her immense lifespan, not a single moment came to mind.

Trying to distract herself from this feeling, she listened to how Pink’s excitement turned to boredom as she actually began to run the colony, Yellow tried to hold back a snort but failed and received a dirty look from Blue for her reward. White immediately tried to focus on the Pearl, she did not want to get in the middle of _that_ argument again. _‘How can she learn how to be a Diamond if she doesn’t have a colony?’_ ‘How do we know she is ready for the responsibility of a colony?’ _‘Why don’t we give her command of a station?’_ ‘Whose station and who will supervise her?’ At the time this argument had seemed repetitive and inane, White had avoided such topics for many cycles believing that Pink just needed to get her act together and demonstrate the right attitude, Pink was a part of White, she always had the potential to be a great Diamond.

White closed her eyes and pictured her meditation chamber, White knew that a part of her still believed in that old rhetoric: that all other gems were impure, off-colour versions of her and that if they let White’s light shine through them, then they can achieve their ideal, best and perfect self. It was hard to break that mindset, even now. That voice in the back of White’s head whispered louder than it had done in years, the stress of the time-travel was taking its toll.

Steven’s voice was what brought White back to the present, opening her eyes she looked down to see him facing Yellow and Blue, with the same smile that he gave to the Diamonds in her timeline.

“C’mon guys, does it matter if Mom was ready or not? I mean, that’s all in the past, she made her way to Earth and … well … you know.”

That smile he gave always seemed off, White wasn’t sure what it meant or why he was doing it, but she knew that it was her duty to never see that particular expression again. Glancing towards her fellow Diamonds she saw Yellow roll her eyes and grit her teeth, White did not want Steven to experience the ire of Yellow.

“Absolutely Steven.” White’s smiled brightly as she drew the attention of all gems present, “It is best to look to the future, and hope that it is bright.” With that the potential argument was averted, Yellow quickly averted her gaze back down to the Pearl and seemed intent on looking nowhere else.

White nodded slightly. “You may continue.”

Clearing her throat the Pearl, launched into describing Pink’s initial reaction to the Earth, taking the guise of a Rose Quartz. As the Pearl got more and more into her story she eventually projected her memories of the event, and White could not hold back a gasp. It was Pink transforming into her Rose disguise. Something ached within White as she saw Pink’s face light up at the thought of going down to Earth. White wished she knew what she could have done better, what words to say, what actions she could have taken so that Pink looked at her like that?

But then something else settled in White, a confusion and a coldness. She saw how Pink moved about the Kindergarten, introducing herself to the gems before moving into the wilderness and embracing the beauty of nature and the Earth.

White knew that she was missing something. In the future, her meditation chamber was filled with plants, they served as a constant reminder of the flux of life, how everything changes. White tended to them, ensured they had the perfect soil, the perfect amount of light and the perfect amount of water … Yet no matter how hard she tried, White could not find the value in them. What did Pink see that White did not? Watching Pink despondent face as she gazed upon the kindergarten made White wonder why Pink valued the organic life of Earth over the creation of Gems despite being one herself?

Pink always defiant, even against her nature as a gem.

White watched Pink beg Yellow and Blue to allow her to stop the colonisation, she pleaded to spare the lives of the humans, flora and fauna. Pink might as well have been screaming into the vacuum of space. Uncontrollable tears poured down White’s face, turning towards her fellow Diamonds, she could see that Blue was distraught.

“It was my fault, I pushed her away.”

Blue speech became more erratic as she began to spiral.

“I should have done more, I should have listened … I … I thought that it was another one of her … whims …”

Blue turned to face White, her eyes pleading.

“I’m sorry … I thought that if she stopped the colonisation then she … she …”

The implication hung in the air as clear as White’s gem. Before White could move or speak Yellow gently placed a comforting hand on Blues shoulder,

“Blue, we have her back now, we can put this whole debacle behind us and make plan for the future.”

White wondered if she should step in and make a comment. Was it her place, was the timing perfect, would what she say be anything helpful, maybe it would be best if she was silent. Trying to distract herself from the uncomfortableness that had settled into her form whenever she looked at Yellow and Blue, White turned her attention back towards the Pearl, giving a curt nod for her to continue.

The Pearl began to explain the first major battle of the rebellion, when the fearsome Rose Quartz threatened a Blue Diamond’s entourage, trying to force her to leave the planet. How did it ever come to that? What followed was Pink leading her Pearl into battle against a force they could not possibly achieve victory and yet somehow, in defiance of fate, succeeded. Pink may have been ill-suited for the position as a Diamond, but leading was engrained into her existence.

Once again, White found herself alone in her head with only her thoughts. Had she not been a good ruler? Had her choices not come from love? All she wanted what was best for all gemkind, to ensure that their purpose as a species was achieved.

No, she had wanted what she _thought_ was best. As if in reaction, something twisted within her, rising up in indignation to protest against her accused imperfection. It was only within the past few months, after talking with the future versions of Blue and Yellow, that White was able to finally identify the feeling:

**_Shame._ **

White had been ashamed her entire existence. Before Steven she was ashamed of her imperfections and impurities, wishing that no one would discover the truth. But even after Steven opened her mind to the truth, she still was ashamed. Not only about who she was, but about what she had done, what she had said … what she had inflicted.

This feeling deepened as she watched from the … from Pearl’s perspective, she and her fellow Diamonds devastate the Earth and all its gem inhabitants: Loyal, Rebel, Innocent or Guilty, White had destroyed their lives all the same.

Feeling the heat begin to rise to her face, White panicked. If Yellow and Blue saw her … off-colour, this could prove disastrous, she still needed to appear perfect! She needed to calm down. She needed to set things right immediately, at least so she could stop this disgusting, awful feeling.

White stood up abruptly, giving all gems present a shock and scare as she swung her arms outwards in proclamation.

“This simply will not do.”

Blue and Yellow shared a look, as did the crystal gems. Steven was the one who worked up the courage.

“Hey White, uh … what do you mean?”

Suppressing her shame and … that other feeling, White let her form grow brighter.

“Steven, we are going to reverse this horrible transformation of course.”

The feelings vanished as White looked upon the shocked and stunned expressions of the gems before her, this was the right call, she was going to make things right, White was going to be better.

_White Diamond was going to make everything better._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We once again return to White Diamonds perspective. I want to get across the idea that the deeply engrained behaviours that White has held for millenia will not vanish overnight ... they certainly won't vanish in few years. They just ... gain a new perspective.
> 
> It is also nice to get a bit into one of the three major plotlines of this piece.


	9. Chapter 8: Awkward Car Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby and Sapphire have a conversation that needs to happen, and then Ruby befriends an unlikely human.

The air was tense in the empty house when Garnet defused, she knew that she was out of sight from _the Diamonds_. Once they were alone they fell apart, their only comfort knowing that Blue Diamond did not get the satisfaction and vindication of seeing them like this.

As the pair collapsed onto the floor there was a deafening silence in the air created by the thick tension.

Sapphire turned to Ruby, her eye brimming with tears and lips quivering

“She lied to us.”

Sapphire’s voice barely louder than a whisper, rising to a sitting position,

“She lied to us about everything … and we never questioned it.”

Without a word Ruby sat up and reached out to hold Sapphire’s hand, they needed each other now. Garnet had not seen a future where Steven or the other gems were hurt by the Diamonds, they had time to take this moment.

As Ruby’s fingers graced the tips of Sapphire’s, both recoiled. Sapphire had summoned a ring of icicles about herself. A deep cold pierced Ruby’s heart,

“Sapphire, why … how were we supposed to know?” Determination growing by the moment, “We couldn’t have known.”

Ruby hoped, pleaded, that Sapphire was listening, that she could see the truth.

Sapphire stood up and faced towards the warp pad. “No, you couldn’t have known. Knowing the truth is what I’m for.” Sapphires face contorted with anger, “But she _lied_ , we trusted her, never questioned her and yet…”

Ruby tried to stand up but the floor was too icy, she slipped. Using her growing anger at her clumsiness she melted away the ice that had, unintentionally, bound her. Glancing up she saw Sapphire on the warp pad. Panic filled Ruby’s heart as she willed her legs to move faster, to reach her love in time.

“She made fools of us all.” Sapphire said with her back turned.

Ruby dashed towards Sapphire, arm extended, but the warp pad ignited before Ruby could reach it. As the light faded Ruby was left dumbstruck as her love had ran away from her.

Ruby stepped back and back, as if being repelled by the location that Sapphire had left, until she tripped on boundary between the Temple and the House, her back slamming against the wood.

Ruby did not move.

Alone in the darkness of the house Ruby waited. If she went outside then she would have to confront _the Diamonds_ and her family would have to see her like this, that was unacceptable. She could go after Sapphire, but without future vision …

For the first time in over 5000 years, Ruby was lost, rudderless on the river of time that carried her to stars knowns where. What is she to do without Sapphire? Who is she without Sapphire?

A crack broke the silence as Ruby felt the floor give way and she fell into the crawlspace below the house, landing with a distinctive ‘thunk’ on the ground. She pulled one of the broken floorboards from beneath her and glared at it angrily, why did they build a house that wasn’t fireproof?

Sitting up Ruby looked back towards the beach, it seems as though the Diamonds and the other crystal gems had moved further down the beach and had set up some sort of … weird floating platform. Pearl looked like she was doing her acting, holograms and all.

Great! Ruby could sneak by without any of _them_ noticing. Keeping near the rocks Ruby moved silently on the sand, until she reached the town far from any view of the Diamonds. Far from her friends. Far from her Laughy Sapphy.

Kicked a can, Rose had lied to them about who she was and about the rebellion as a whole. But did that mean that their relationship was a … “OWW!”

Ruby snapped out of her reverie and looked up to see the Donut boy on the ground, rubbing his forehead.

“Watch where your kickin’ that …” Lars looked up to see a strange red figure, and not one he recognised. He immediately jumped to his feet, yelping as he does so.

“I aint, going to be abducted again you … weird … rock things.” His knees trembling as he faced Ruby, his fists slightly raised.

Ruby was incensed, “I’m not a Homeworld gem!” stamping her foot unleashing a small burst of fire.

Lars backed off from the flames before realising what had just been said. “Wait, if you’re not one of them then … URGH you must be one of Steven’s weird aunts.”

After everything that he had been through, Lars was DONE with any of this nonsense … although he didn’t recognise this one. It still might be a trap.

Glancing around the boardwalk was completely deserted, all businesses closed, where was everyone?

Lars slipped his phone out of his pocket, trying to keep it hidden, the red gem appeared to be preoccupied, pacing back and forth. Turning the screen slightly … ouch … 105 texts and 38 missed calls. Keeping the gem in the corner of his eye, Lars began scrolling through the messages, they were mostly from Mom, Dad and Sadie.

A pit dropped in Lars stomach, how was he ever going to face her again, she begged for help in genuine peril and he just …

Lars sighed, as he swiped away the notifications, he needed to call his parents, he needed to call Sadie, he needed to do the right thing.

“Hey! Donut boy. Where is everyone?”

Lars’ attention snapped back to the gem in front of him. She was looking around the abandoned boardwalk.

“They probably left when the giant alien ship arrived, they’ll probably be on their way towards Empire city by this point.”

The short red gem deflated, her eyes cast towards the ground, her clenched fist released its tension. Lars’ brow furrowed, putting away his phone he turned away from the red gem and took strides toward his house.

“You coming?” he called back. The red gem glanced up,

“Huh?”

“We can go to my place, I can grab a bite, take my Mom’s tiny car and meet up with the rest of Beach city at the ‘evacuation point’ Mayor Dewey set up.”

The gem ran up alongside Lars and kept pace whilst he talked.

“I mean it’s not really an evacuation point, it’s like this waffle place that is a few miles out of town. Honestly, this town is a mess, alien’s invade and our brilliant mayors plan is to go out for dinner. What about a zombie apocalypse? Do we go bowling?”

Lars smirked before glancing at his compatriot, she didn’t appear to be listening. Lars focused back on the sidewalk and began to think back to his time in the ship. Steven was there for him when he gave up.

“Heya … you … good?”

It was at this point that Lars remembered why he never comforts people. Why did he …

“No … I … I don’t know. Everything has changed: Rose lied to us, the Diamonds are here ‘peacefully’ and Sapphire …”

The red gem’s pace slowed down for a second before she shook herself and continued walking.

“We have … had been together for so long, I was a nobody before I was with her and now that she is gone … I don’t know who I am. I was defined by the fact that I was a part of Garnet and now that I am no longer her ...”

Lars was out of his depth. He had no idea how to respond to that. Does he offer a suggestion?

“You could try and find out who you are?” he slowly said.

The short gem turned to him, eyes wide; this encouraged him to continue.

“I mean you could do new things to find out who you are, and even if you are scared of those new things or people … you have to go for it.”

The red gem nodded as he talked, before a small smile burst onto her face.

“YEAH! We stayed together as Garnet because Rose told us to be her, that we were the 'answer'. But now it's my first time really thinking about... me!”

The red gem chuckled, “You’re alright donut boy.”

Lars saw his house up ahead, it seems as though his parents took his Dad’s car. “Yeah, sure. Wait! My name’s not ‘donut boy’ it’s Lars.”

The red gem turned towards him with her hand outstretched, “I’m Ruby and I am my own gem.”

Lars grabbed the red … Ruby’s hand with his left and fished out his keys with his right, he opened the door. The house was unsurprisingly empty, as Lars walked into the kitchen something curled in his stomach when he saw his baking stuff on the wash rack. He left it for his Mom and Dad to do again.

He grabbed himself a glass of water as he raided the fridge, there was some leftover Ube roll from his trial runs, it was a little stale but at this point ANYTHING would do.

Ruby had followed him into the kitchen and was looking around the room. Oh right!

“Hey Ruby, do you want any?” Lars gestured towards the Ube.

“Nah, I don’t need to … hmmm.” Ruby paused for a moment, “You know what, yeah! I wanna try some.”

Lars offered the last two slices and Ruby wolfed them down as Lars began searching for his Mom’s keys.

“Wow! This is really good.”

Lars felt a small bit of pride at a stranger complimenting his food.

“Yeah, the trick is to roll it up in cellophane while its hot, letting it cool and then rolling it again with the cream. Otherwise you get a load of splits on the outside.”

Lars smiled, he had found the keys.

“Hey Ruby, I got the keys. Lets get … going?”

Lars looked around, where was Ruby? He jumped at the sound of a car horn.

“What are you waiting for donut Lars?”

How did she get in the car so quickly? How did she get the keys off of him? How on Earth did she think that she was going to be driving!?

Lars approached the driver’s side,

“Move over, I’m driving. You can’t see over the dashboard and your legs don’t reach the pedals.”

Ruby turned quizzically, “What do you need the pedals for?”

Lars stared at Ruby, he was beginning to remember why he avoided Steven’s family. A rule that he would now strictly enforce because of the giant ladies who kidnapped him and put Steven on trial.

“Get. In. The. Passenger. Seat.”

Ruby rolled her eyes, moved over to the passenger side and buckled her seatbelt. Lars got in and started up the car, the small engine revved to life as Lars reversed out of the driveway and onto the main road.

The car descended into a gentle silence as the unlikely duo began driving out of beach city. Ruby’s excitement began to fade, she began focusing intently on the dashboard, her face contorting into a frown.

Lars saw this out of the corner of his eye, he knew he had to say something, but what?

“So … Steven is like a … Diamond, that’s something.”

That seemed to get her attention. Ruby looked up at Lars a her face filled with fury for a moment, within that instance the car’s temperature sky rocketed. Lars quickly rolled down the window trying to cool the car. It took a moment but Ruby calmed down, her expression falling and her eyes staring at her feet.

“How is Steven?” Ruby said tentatively, her voice uncharacteristically small.

Keeping his eyes on the road, Lars tried to think. He didn’t get a chance to talk to Steven after the trial or on the journey over.

“He seemed, upset … I think?” Lars glanced towards Ruby saw her face contort with sadness. Come on Lars, Steven is her … son or something, have some tact.

“B-but, he’s okay now. Well, I mean the two big ladies wanted to like punish him and stuff for what his mom did.”

The car heated up, once again, as Ruby started muttering.

“Urgh! Blue Diamond completely merciless! She's a shatterer! She yelled at Sa… She hates fusion a-and love!?”

Lars interjected trying to calm her down.

“Yeah but then this third big lady came in and put an end to all the stuff the other two wanted to do.”

Ruby’s expression froze before morphing to confusion.

“Huh? Was it Yellow Diamond or …?”

“No, no it was the Tallest one … err White I think is what the others called her. Yeah she showed up and like ended the trial and brought Steven back home.”

Ruby was incredulous, “White? White Diamond? She saved Steven?”

“Yeah. Why is she bad?”

“Of course she is bad, she is a Diamond!” Ruby rapidly responded “I mean, she is … she umm … okay I don’t know much about her. Nobody except those upper crust gems saw her. But she was the one to make the ‘No Fusion’ rule between different gem types. She was the one who made the gem castes! She was the one who started destroying planets!”

“Jeez calm down, your burning the carpets!”

Ruby snapped out of her anger, there was smoke in the air and embers at her feet. Panic rose in Ruby as she quickly put out the fires, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down again Ruby knew that she needed to not let her anger get the better of her. Returning her attention to the human she hoped to explain the situation better,

“White Diamond is responsible for so much pain and suffering. I just can’t believe it that she would do something like saving Steven.”

A tense silence filled the car as the wafflehouse came into view over the ridge. The human Lars responded,

“I dunno what to tell you, but she was the only one who was in Steven’s corner. Once they found out that Steven was a prince they were making all of these decisions for him, but White was the only one who asked Steven what he wanted to do.”

Confusion welled up inside Ruby. It felt like the universe had turned upside down, Ruby didn’t know what to think. Imaginary shivers run up and down Ruby’s skin, she had no idea what was going on and she needed guidance, she needed …

The inner fire of Ruby blossomed. No! She needed to think of the present, she needed to focus on finding herself.

The car slowed to a crawl and Ruby was broken out of her inner thoughts by the car door opening. Glancing outside Ruby saw Donut Lars tentatively step out before waving to his parents. They rushed over and grabbed him in a hug, tears were streaming down their faces.

Donut Lars seemed to pause for a moment before breaking down and sinking into their hug, uncaring about the crowd that had gathered around the three of them.

Ruby smiled, despite everything that had happened with Sapphire and the Diamonds, it was still nice to see Donut Lars happy. As she watches the donut girl break through the crowd, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Ruby came face to face with Greg, who was flanked by Connie.

“Ruby, what’s going on? Lars is here so does that mean that Steven is here? Where is my son?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay in update. My thesis had caught up with me and I needed to get some writing for that done. I have made this chapter an longer one to say sorry, and I once again thank everyone for their kind words and feedback. Everytime I get a ping in my inbox I get more motivation to write. Thank you all so much. I am trying out shifting character perspectives where we went from Ruby to Lars before back to Ruby.


End file.
